Boston railway station serves the town of

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It is a stop on the Poacher Line, which connects with . The station is owned by

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...

and managed by

East Midlands Railway East Midlands Railway (EMR; legally Transport UK East Midlands Limited) is a British train operating company owned by Transport UK Group, and is the current operator of the East Midlands franchise. Originally owned by Abellio (transport compan ...

, who provide all rail services.

History

Boston railway station geograph-2298559-by-Ben-Brooksbank

The station opened on 17 October 1848, with the opening of the Great Northern Railway's East Lincolnshire Line. The station has declined in importance since the 1960s. In its heyday, the station employed over 50 staff and had two through tracks and cover over the platform tracks. The Skegness-bound platform had classic Great Northern Railway architecture buildings, which have since been replaced with plastic shelters. The station frontage remains, albeit altered in a partially reconstructed manner, and some of the buildings have found new uses. Boston station was once an important junction, with two lines diverging in either direction. Today, only the eastbound line to Skegness and the westbound line towards remain in use. There was previously a southbound line to , which closed in October 1970, that joined the line to and formed part of the original GNR main line from to ); in addition, there was a north-westbound line to (closed in June 1963) and thence on towards , or . Both surviving routes are single line, with a

passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains o ...

at the station. To the south of the station, the access to Boston Docks via the

swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that can be rotated horizontally around a vertical axis. It has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravit ...

and the site of the Broadfield Lane depot remain; the rail link into the docks still sees occasional use. To the north along the old Lincoln to Boston and Horncastle route, about 2 miles north of the town is the old Hall Hills sleeper depot.

Services

All services at Boston are operated by

. The station is served by an hourly service westbound to , via , and eastbound to .

References

External links

{{Railway stations served by East Midlands Railway Railway stations in Lincolnshire DfT Category E stations Former Great Northern Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1848 Railway stations served by East Midlands Railway Buildings and structures in Boston, Lincolnshire River Witham